|
|
RALEIGH, N.C. (Mar. 18) – As many early-bird anglers can attest, this is a great year for hickory shad fishing. Just ask Trey Maroules. The Grifton angler reeled in a record-breaking hickory shad from Pitchkettle Creek, a Neuse River tributary in Craven County, on Feb. 22. The showcase shad, weighing in at 4 pounds, 1 ounce, measured 22 inches in length and 12.8 inches in girth. Maroules caught his record breaker on a Browning rod and Diawa reel, using a spoon as bait. The fish was weighed on certified scales at The Country Store in Grifton. Positive identification of record-breaking fish often can be a collaborative effort among agencies, as was the case with North Carolina’s latest freshwater fishing record. While fisheries biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission tentatively identified the fish as a hickory shad, it was sent to Wayne Starnes, research curator of fishes for the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, to confirm identification. The second confirmation by Starnes was a precautionary step taken to identify the record-breaking shad because, having grown so large, it had lost some of identifying characteristics, said Bob Barwick, fisheries biologist with the Commission. “Many record-sized fish often do not resemble their smaller counterparts and identifying these fish can be somewhat difficult, even for trained biologists,” Barwick said. “After some fish reach a certain size, they begin to lose the characteristics of average-sized fish of the same species.” Sometimes, what an angler believes is a record-breaker turns out to be a hybrid between two closely related species, which may result in higher rates of growth and survival to record sizes. “Because catching a state record can be one of the most exciting events to happen to an angler, we never want to take chances with misidentifying a fish,” Barwick said. Spring is the best time to catch hickory shad and their larger cousins, American shad, as the typically saltwater-dwelling fish begin their spawning run upstream to freshwater rivers and streams. A two- to three-pound hickory shad dangling on the end of a line is enough to tickle the most ardent of anglers, while a four-pounder is — well — a record breaker. The previous North Carolina state record hickory shad, taken from the Tar River in 1992, weighed a comparatively paltry 3 pounds, 8 ounces. To qualify for a state record, anglers must have caught their fish on a hook and line, must have their fish weighed on a certified scale witnessed by one observer, have the fish positively identified by a qualified expert from the Commission and submit an application with a full, side-view photo of the fish. See a list of all
freshwater fish state records in North Carolina |
